


Class Ring

by Finale



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, fucking losers don't want their story to end, i feel like i am incapable of proper one shots these days, this only was supposed to be the first chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-10 11:39:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6983422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finale/pseuds/Finale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hal had another ring, one just as important to him as his Green Lantern ring. Now it's Bruce's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [Class Ring/毕业戒指](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14373240) by [clairelight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairelight/pseuds/clairelight)



The ring didn’t fit. 

It was meant for a hand just a hair slimmer than his. Just a slight difference, but one that makes it impossible for him to wear the ring. Not unless he wanted to have the ring re-fitted, but he didn’t. He didn’t want to make it impossible for it’s original owner to wear it. 

Hal being a graduate of the Air Force Academy was something Bruce had known, had understood in an almost abstract fashion. It was the school for the Air Force, Martin Jordan’s alma mater, and where Hal had strived for most of his teenage years to go. People frequently made the mistake of thinking Hal was dumb, but no one dumb ever made it to one to Air Force Academy, and especially, no one dumb made it to fighter pilot. 

Bruce rolls the ring between his hands. It was a heavy ring, 14k gold with a green stone, solid in a way that Hal’s Green Lantern ring wasn’t. That was an almost ephemeral ring, the duties of the ring more solid than its physicality. This was a ring of the past, of a part of Hal’s history that he rarely spoke about. 

For Bruce, it had taken him years to realize just how little about Hal Jordan he knew. He knew the early tragedies, his father’s death, and his mother’s disownment. He’d known that Hal was perpetually out of a job, down on luck financially and rarely on Earth. He’d known that Hal had been an Air Force fighter pilot, that he’d made captain and had an honorable discharge, though there’d been a rumor of Hal punching out a superior officer. 

But he’d realized, for all that information, he knew almost nothing in depth. What, exactly Hal had done during his military service (he’d never realized Hal had been AFSOC, or that he’d flown in Operation Deliberate Force). If Hal was still in contact with any of his old Air Force friends, or if he’d had friends in other branches (yes to both; Mara (also AFSOC) was vaguely terrifying and Marc (Army) and Tanja (Marine) almost reminded him of Ollie and Dinah). It had never occurred to him to really look. For him the most important aspect of Hal had been his present, him being a Green Lantern, and the relationships there. 

When Hal had handed him this ring earlier tonight, he’d been stunned. Hal’s Academy ring was something he’d almost never worn. Something precious and private to Hal since he left the Air Force, something he never showed anyone. 

And Hal had given it to him. Asked him one simple question, and given it to him. 

Bruce wonders how a May wedding would be.


	2. Chapter 2

Hal presses a kiss against Bruce’s palm, admiring the way the white gold and emerald ring gleamed on Bruce’s hand. Before he’d given it to Bruce he’d carefully shined it, aware that it had been in a lockbox for years, in a bank that had thankfully survived Coast’s destruction. Bruce chuffs at him in his sleep, brow furrowing slightly at Hal’s action, but thankfully not waking up. He needed more sleep, having spent almost two days hunting the Joker. 

When Hal had first started at the Air Force Academy, he’d started saving up for his class ring, knowing his Mom wouldn’t give his money for it, and not wanting to ask his godparents for the funds. Aunt Esther and Uncle Tyler would have, but Hal still didn’t want to. He wanted to do it himself. Instead, during the summer months between classes when he worked various odd jobs, he made sure to save a certain amount to go toward his class ring. A similar amount came from his work-study stipend, though the majority of both went to his schoolbooks and living expenses. 

Then came the day he bought the ring. He’d thought carefully about it, knowing he wouldn’t get a second chance to do it. Hal knew he’d wanted white gold, but practically to the day of him buying the ring, he’d wrestled over the stone color. He’d debated between green and yellow, and the cruel irony of that never escaped him. That day, he finally settled on green, and wore the ring for his entire military career. For him it had been a symbol of what he had accomplished and what he would accomplish

When he’d left the Air Force, barely squeaking out with an honorable discharge, (and briefly giving serious contemplation to doing something like punching out a superior officer if he couldn’t to get the dishonorable discharge) he’d put it away. Then it was just a sign of shattered dreams and how cruel life could be. He’d served in the Yugoslavia campaign, in the Gulf War, and his Mom’s refusal to see him had still been worse. He couldn’t look at the ring without thinking of never getting the chance to say goodbye. 

So he’d put it away, ending a chapter of his life that he hadn’t wanted to end. 

Abin Sur’s death and his induction to the Green Lantern Corps brought a new ring to him and a new chapter in his life. Green always seemed to lead to a new chapter of his life, even when it was only a varnish over something worse. But that ring was what brought him to Bruce. The only thing that allowed him to ever meet the Gothamite. Hal knows that without a doubt, had he stayed Air Force, he’d never have met Bruce. And for that, he’s happy he left. 

Because of that, because the Green Lantern’s ring brought him Bruce, both gave him tragedy and love, he decided to open up the lockbox hiding his class ring. To use that ring to open a new chapter of his life again. To symbolize what was and what will be. 

He agrees with Bruce. May would be a wonderful time for a wedding.


	3. Chapter 3

            Jim had their parent’s wedding bands. 

            Until very recently, Hal had thought Jack had them, but simply didn’t use them during his marriage. He’d never really thought about where the rings were after his older brother’s death. Hal had known his Mom didn’t want him to have them, didn’t really want him to have any sort of family heirloom (the only reason he had his jacket is because when he ran away, he ran away with it). But the entire time, Jim had had their parent’s wedding bands. 

_“I have their rings,” Jim says, startling Hal. He’d been dropping off the wedding invitation for Jim, Sue and the kids, planning on heading next to Carol and Kyle’s._

_“What?” Hal asks, confused as to whom Jim is referring to. “Who’s rings do you have?”_

_“Mom and Dad’s,” he says, giving Hal a flat look. “Mom gave them to me before she died. Jack had wanted something new for him and Janice, so Mom gave them to me, hoping that when I got married I’d used them. I didn’t either, but I still have them.”_

_“Why are you telling me?” Hal asks, completely mystified. “Hell, I always assumed Jack had them, and that they’d gotten either lost in Coast’s destruction, or he’d used them. I’m always surprised that my class ring wasn’t destroyed during that.”_

_“No, Mom gave them to me, and asked me to never tell you I had them,” Jim says, studying his hands. “She knew you’d think Jack had them, if you ever really thought about it. She didn’t think you’d ever get married, that you’d get killed in a plane crash first.”_

_“I sometimes wonder if she didn’t_ hope _I’d crash,” Hal mutters under his breath, too quietly for Jim to hear. “But that still doesn’t explain why you’re telling me this. I’m not going to demand them, or something like that.”_

_“I know, but it’s been bugging me for a while that you didn’t know where they were,” Jim admits._

_“Jim, at the end of the day, Mom decided that she wanted to cut me as completely out of your guys’ lives as humanly possible,” Hal says bluntly. “Her ghost would probably come back screaming at me if I even tried using those rings.”_

_“Still…”_

_“It’s fine Jim. Now, lets focus on happier things, like Howie’s baseball game…”_

            For Hal, his parent’s rings symbolized how unhealthy even a loving marriage could be. His parents had adored each other. They would have done anything for each other. And in a lot of ways, because of how much his Mom loved his Dad, his death completely broke her. When they’d managed to retrieve his body from the wreck of the plane, the one thing she requested was his wedding band. For the rest of her life (as far as he knew), she wore his Dad’s band on a necklace that she never took off.

            His Dad’s death broke his Mom, and she never let herself get fixed.

            Hal knows Jim telling him about the rings was a silent offer for Hal to use them. To symbolize the love he and Bruce shared. And much like his brothers, he wouldn’t use them. Even though they symbolized powerful love and devotion, they also symbolized how destructive that could be. He’d seen that enough during his childhood, and more than enough with dealing with the Star Sapphires ~~and Sinestro~~. 

            No, for Bruce, their wedding rings would be their something new.


	4. Chapter 4

Before Hal, wedding rings had been as alien to Bruce than Hal’s Green Lantern ring.

They had both agreed that Bruce could choose the wedding rings. Hal had been the one to propose, the one to choose that ring. Now Bruce could choose the wedding bands, his sign of devotion toward Hal. Hal had wanted something new, something unconnected to their pasts. But he’d asked Bruce to choose, rather than doing it himself. 

He knows Hal had been somber since speaking to Jim Jordan while dropping off the wedding invitation. At first, he’d thought it was from Hal seeing Carol and Kyle, since he knows Hal wasn’t entirely used to the relationship. Then he’d realized it was from seeing Jim. Jim, who had offered Hal their parents’, wedding rings.

Bruce…didn’t like Jim or Jack Jordan very much. Both had followed their mother’s lead in abandoning Hal, Jim too weak-willed to go against both his mother and Jack, and Jack always resentful of Hal. Hal who had been the most like their father, how their mother had both loved and hated the most. Bruce knows that Jack blamed Hal for Jessica Jordan’s death, that as far as he was concerned, it was the stress of worrying about Hal that killed her. Not the underlying health problems she already had, or the fact she hadn’t taken the best care of herself since Martin Jordan’s death, but because Hal had followed in their father’s footsteps. 

It was probably a good thing Bruce had never met Jack, because he’d probably have punched him.

He suspects Jim offered Hal the rings as a peace offering, and apology for abandoning him for so long. The rings were the worst sort of peace offering though, a tie to a past Hal didn’t want to taint their future. A reminder that love can be as destructive as hate, even if unintended. 

No, for their future they’d start anew, with rings clean of memories.


	5. Chapter 5

Hal didn’t want to buy Bruce an engagement ring. He wanted to give Bruce something that had meaning more than ‘it’s pretty and reminded me of you’. Something that Bruce could look at and think of him. Besides, it’s not like he could afford something nice enough for the wealthiest man in the world anyway.

            But Bruce likes sentimental things. Hal knows that. He likes, and deserves things with memories and history attached. And he also knows exactly what ring to give Bruce. Now, where did he put that lock box?

                                                            *****************

            There will never be a day that Hal isn’t grateful for Alfred giving his blessing for his and Bruce’s relationship. The butler and practically second-father of Bruce had made it clear to Hal, once they all realized the relationship was going to actually last, that as long as Hal made Bruce happy, he had Alfred’s blessing. But even with that blessing, he still has a question to ask Alfred.

            “Hey Alfred?” Hal calls, entering the kitchen where he knows the butler is baking bread “Can I ask you something?”

            “Yes?” the British butler says, looking over his shoulder at Hal. He had been checking to see how ready the bread was. “What do you need Master Hal?”

            “Can I marry Bruce?” Hal asks, toying with the velvet box he’d bought specifically for the ring. “I love him, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I can’t imagine being with anyone else.” And it’s been a long time since he had that feeling, almost fifteen, no, closer to twenty years now. This time the relationship was happy and healthy though, not a constant power struggle and sense of no control. “So please? Can I marry him.” 

            “You can,” Alfred says with a smile. “May I see the ring?” he asks, walking over and gesturing to the box in Hal’s hands.

            “Yeah,” Hal says, popping open the box and showing his old Air Force class ring. “I hope Bruce likes it. It’s something that has a lot of meaning to me, and I hope will now have a lot of meaning to him.”

            “This was your class ring,” Alfred’s voice sounds odd, and it’s not really a question. “You’re giving him something from your life before you were a Green Lantern.”

            “Yeah. I thought it would be a better idea to give him something that had memory to it, something that I have good memories toward,” Hal explains. “Give himself I hope to make more good memories with.”

            “That is definitely the proper ring for him,” Alfred smiles. “Now, just how are you planning on proposing?”

            “Well, that’s where I need your help…”

          ******************

            Hal sits on the green picnic blanket outside the manor, under the stars. It’s the night of a new moon, a hopeful sign of a new start. A new life with Bruce, a permanent life with Bruce. Marriage wasn’t a requirement for Bruce, but somehow it did comfort Hal. The thought that Bruce couldn’t, no, wouldn’t, cast him away if they were married.

            Alfred had helped him put together the meal, and found the candles for him. Silverware and porcelain dishes from the manor, little candles at the four corners for lights, and Bruce coming up the pathway, smiling slightly at him. Seeing Bruce smile always gives him a thrill like taking off in a plane. Similar warmth to the first time he succeeded as a pilot and the praise that came with it. 

            “What’s the occasion?” Bruce asks, sitting down on the blanket carefully, trying to avoid knocking over the candles. “I know it’s not my birthday, I haven’t lost track of the dates that much.”

            “You mean like last year when you forgot what day of the week it was and thought it was Monday when it was Friday? And threw a batarang at Clark because you weren’t expecting a surprise party?” Hal teases. “But yeah, you’re right. It’s not that. It’s something else, but right now I’m starving and want to eat the spread.”

            “I’m hungry too,” Bruce admitted. “I was training earlier.”

            “Actual training or trying to get Dick to stop perching on top of the computer?” Hal can’t help but ask. It seemed like Dick was always perching on the computer for some reason.

            “Both.”

            Both men dig into the food. It’s an assortment of Bruce’s favorites, and Hal can tell by the look on his face that Bruce is slowly getting more and more confused. As they finally finish dessert, Hal knows it’s time. Time to ask the big question.

            He takes Bruce’s hand and puts the velvet box in his hand. Bruce gazes at him, blue eyes wide in shock and something else, something that Hal would almost call awe as he opens the box and sees the ring. White gold with a green stone, a choice Hal had made even before he’d been a Green Lantern.

            “Bruce Wayne, will you marry me?”


	6. Chapter 6

            Bruce knows Hal is plotting something. The Green Lantern didn’t know the word ‘subtle’ but he did know how to keep his plans hidden (a bit more than Bruce ever expected). So Bruce doesn’t know exactly what Hal is planning, only that he is excited over it. That he may have enlisted Alfred for whatever it is.

            The one that he is certain of is that whatever Hal is planning is positive. Alfred wouldn’t be going along with something that could hurt him, and Hal wouldn’t try to get Alfred to do so. So Alfred being involved was a good sign, but Bruce still couldn’t entirely think of what it could be. Is he forgetting an anniversary again? Is there some sort of important space holiday? Bruce just can’t think of what it could be.

            He just knows that Hal wants him at a specific place on the grounds in a half an hour, and that he’s supposed to dress nicely. He knows that his children are snickering at him over something, and he’s a bit worried by the fact Damian and Hal had been cloistered for a while earlier (but not too worried since Hal is uninjured). Bruce also knows Hal and Alfred and been talking about something a few days ago, but he still doesn’t know what that was about.

            All he really knows, is that Hal is planning something and that it’s positive.

            So for the next half an hour he keeps changing his shirt (and briefly pausing to go down to the cave and yell at Dick for perching on top of the computer again; he wasn’t eleven anymore, at some point he would be too big and fall off and onto someone) and wondering what Hal is up to. He’s not going to tell him that he’s ending the relationship because the Guardians decided to betroth him to Sinestro for some weird peace treaty, right? Alfred may help him on creating a ‘I love you, but I have to do this or else Earth is in danger’ break up. Or tell him that he’s dying from some disease he picked up in space or cancer or, or…Bruce just can’t think of what it could be.

            He walks along the path to where Hal is waiting for him. He can’t help but smile slightly at the sight of the brunet, especially when Hal’s smiling back at him. Smiles at him like the sight of Bruce is the most amazing thing ever, like flying through the stars or the purr of a new plane. Smiles like Bruce means the most to him in the entire universe. Smiles that Bruce can’t help but find addictive and always tries to bring out from Hal.

            “What’s the occasion?” Bruce asks, sitting down on the blanket carefully, muscles sore from earlier training and doing his best to avoid the candles. “I know it’s not my birthday, I haven’t lost track of the dates that much.”

                       “You mean like last year when you forgot what day of the week it was and thought it was Monday when it was Friday? And threw a batarang at Clark because you weren’t expecting a surprise party?” Hal teases, reminding Bruce of a very embarrassing moment. “But yeah, you’re right. It’s not that. It’s something else, but right now I’m starving and want to eat the spread.”

           “I’m hungry too,” Bruce confesses. “I was training earlier.”

           “Actual training or trying to get Dick to stop perching on top of the computer?” Hal asks, obviously unable to help himself.

           “Both,” Bruce sighs, knowing how ridiculous his eldest could be. Dick really was going to injure himself some day.

            They both dig into the food, and it’s completely delicious. Obviously Alfred made, and all of his favorites, so Bruce is even more curious what Hal’s final goal is. More than just this dinner, but what is the next step? What does Hal want? What is going on here? He’s Earth’s Greatest Detective, and he still can’t figure out what is going on through Hal’s head.

            Bruce can tell when the moment arrives during dessert. When Hal seems to be fiddling with getting something out of pocket. It’s a black velvet box, and hope floods him, a hope that he prays is right. If it’s not…Hal hands it to him, and he opens it, seeing the white gold ring with the green stone, a ring he’s only ever heard described to him, but never seen.

            Hal smiles, and it’s brighter than all the stars in the sky.

            “Bruce Wayne, will you marry me?”


	7. Chapter 7

            In Damian’s opinion, the still most surprising aspect of his Father and Hal Jordan’s relationship is the fact he genuinely _likes_ Jordan. He doesn’t tolerate the Green Lantern, the way he did Selina. He doesn’t resent their relationship, the way he did his Father’s relationship with his brothers and sister. He actually _likes_ Jordan, _likes_ spending time with Jordan, _likes_ the man enough that he approves of him marrying his Father. 

            When the relationship had first started out, he hadn’t felt like that. No, when Jordan and Father had started their relationship, he’d all been plotting Jordan’s slow and painful demise. It had been impressive, so impressive that when he changed his mind he gave it as a suggestion to a mildly concerned Todd. Then he had still been hoping his parents’ relationship would work out, the way he at age three had hoped wearing the cape his Father had left with Mother would make her happy (that at least had been true, or at least made her happy for a moment). Then he hadn’t been able to understand what his Father even saw in Hal Jordan.

            As the relationship went on, he slowly started to understand. Slowly started to see how much of Green Lantern was a façade for Hal Jordan, but in a different way than it was for Father or Kent. For Father, Brucie Wayne, playboy and CEO was the façade, the lie he gave to the public so they wouldn’t look to close, and Batman is another, something closer to the truth of Bruce Wayne, but not quite there. For Kent, Superman is the mask, with Clark Kent as the truth, the alien raised human, who has to act separate to be a part of Earth. Green Lantern…Green Lantern’s persona is what fascinates him most, and in some way almost makes him approve more of Jordan for his Father.

             Green Lantern, in a sense, is a dimming of Hal Jordan, for all his ring makes him glow bright. He disguises his intelligence, playing the part of an arrogant fool, a man who leaps without looking. Knows that if he does that, people won’t look to closely, wonder how a man who graduated from the Air Force Academy and was a fighter pilot was so stupid. Get drawn in when fighting him and miss how dangerous he truly is. Miss how much is damaged about Jordan, cracked years before being a Green Lantern, shattered in Coast’s destruction, and slowly put back together when he was reborn.

            And Jordan let his Father into that. Let his Father help fix him, helped his Father fix himself. They supported each other. Gave each other strength. Took from each other, but gave back at the same point, never draining the other dry. Never tried to force the other into a role they weren’t meant for, actions that they didn’t want to take. Not like the way his Mother had with Father, not like the way Sinestro failed at with Hal. They fit together without trying to force miss-matched puzzle pieces together. They didn't demand that the other be only as they imagined, they understood what was fantasy and what was reality.

            “So Damian, what do you think?” Jordan repeats, drawing him back to the conversation at hand. “Should I ask your father to marry me?”

            “You should,” Damian says. “I hope Father says ‘yes’.”


	8. Chapter 8

            _The front of the Gotham Times is a really awkward way to learn about your brother’s engagement_ , Jim muses. _Especially if your brother is the one who proposed._

             Hal hadn’t told him that he was going to propose to Bruce. Since Hal’s resurrection they talk more than they had in the decades before. More than they have since Hal was eighteen and thrown out. But even with how much more they talk, the fact Hal had been planning on proposing wasn’t something he’d known about. Like his brother didn’t think it was something he needed to know ahead of time.

            From Hal’s perspective, that’s probably exactly what he thought. Jim knows he fucked up years ago, when instead of keeping contact with Hal he’d listened to his Mom and Jack, throwing out Hal’s letters until one day they stopped coming. According to Hal he’d stopped writing because he knew he was just wasting the postage, and at that point, he’d decided that trying to let them know about his successes in college and the military wasn’t worth it. 

 _So Hal is probably still not used to letting him know about his successes,_ Jim thinks, trying to convince himself. _Hal probably just thought I wouldn’t care if he did or didn’t tell me._

He flinches at the thought; putting the newspaper down, article only half read he stares into his coffee cup, hoping that somehow in the brown liquid he’d see an answer. Because the worst thing is, he did care, but he could see how Hal would think he still didn’t. How Wayne could think he resented Hal the way Jack had. 

Hal had always been paradoxically Mom’s favorite and least favorite child, both roles for the same reason; he’d been the one most like Dad. In the end he’d been too like Dad, refusing to let his feet be left on the ground, even going so far as to almost follow the same path as Dad. Air Force Academy. Commissioned Officer. Fighter pilot. Test pilot at Ferris Aircrafts. Hal always seemed to be echoing Dad, even when it wasn’t intentional, and that had always made Mom hurt. Also made her love and hate Hal the most of them. Jack had resented that like crazy, feeling like Hal should only be the least favorite. Even though he and Hal had reconciled before Jim had, he suspects his oldest brother had never stopped hating Hal for being the favorite.

Wayne had accused him of something similar. That he resented Hal for being the brave brother, the strong willed one. That he’d taken the easy way out, too weak-willed to go against Mom and Jack, too much of a coward to reach out after he was in college. Jim still isn’t entirely sure Wayne is wrong. Hell, he’d been afraid to reach out to Hal even after _Jack_ had started talking with him again. Every time he’d picked up a phone or started to write a letter he’d stop, too afraid of what Hal would say to him, too afraid of how hard it would be to rebuild their sibling relationship. 

Jim sighs, scrubbing at his face. He may not be the bravest brother, but he’s been trying to do better. Trying to not let people run all over him, to be more assertive. To be there for his brother when he wasn’t in the past.

He has a phone call to Gotham to make.


End file.
